Cactus Blog 

Last weeks travels took me all the way down to the Bowery and the New Museum New York where they were closed due to installing new exhibits on all floors at the same time. Interesting!

However, I did get to see one piece of art on the facade of the building as part of their facade art program. This is Isa Genzken’s Rose II.

The rose sculpture, which measure 28 feet tall, is on loan from a private collector who, as The Observer noted, paid 750,000 Euros for the sculpture.

And the building was designed by recent Pritzker Prize winners SANAA who also designed the interesting glass pavilion in Toledo.

I love blotter paper. It’s very nice to use to blot things with rather than relying on tissues and such. Anyway, on to today’s Police Blotter as it relates to cactus and such.

From Ukiah, a small town far north in Northern California.

SPIT ON BY NEIGHBOR — Caller in the 300 block of South Harold Street reported at 2:19 p.m. Thursday that a neighbor spit on her while she was walking home.

No, not that one. Silly. This one:

$1 STOLEN FROM CAR — Caller in the 100 block of Freitas Street reported at 9:33 a.m. that his/her car was broken into, that $1 was stolen.

Again! No! Not that one. This one:

NEIGHBORS STOLE CACTUS — Caller in the 300 block of East Alder Street reported at 1:53 p.m. Wednesday that she heard her neighbors stealing her cactus from her yard the previous day. An officer took a report.

Somewhat mysterious. She heard her neighbors stealing her cactus and waited a day to call the police. Do you think she went directly to the neighbors first and asked for her cactus back? Do you think they refused and that’s why she went to the police? Do you think the cactus was a Mammillaria?

I suppose this is why we don’t use common names at the nursery – it’s easy to get them wrong and they can be applied to different plants and it just is less precise and I think that common names are often just silly and more importantly are the stupid trademarked cultivar names like “Keystone Kopper” and “Daisy May” but that’s a story for a different day.

Here’s today’s story from Gannett:

My jade tree is Portulacaria afra, a native succulent of South Africa. It is perfect for adding a decidedly Asian flair to any setting indoors or out.

In case I have to spell this out, Jade Tree is Crassula ovata while this “Asian” plant from Africa actually has it’s own common name, Elephant Bush.

In the wild it is browsed from the top down by elephants in its homeland along the eastern Cape, north to Natal. This illustrates why this plant adapts so well to pruning as a bonsai specimen.

It also illustrates why it’s called Elephant Bush. And since common names vary, invariably, the local common name in South Africa for this plant is Spekboom in Afrikaans. Good to know!

It must be February because we’ve brought out the small, single-leafed Hoya kerrii’s. Normally we only have these in large hanging baskets with giant vines and hearts all over the place. But this year we brought in a supply of smaller plants. Really just the hearts. Right in time for some mid-February impulse purchases. They are pretty. And if they don’t sell we’ll grow out the vines, OK?

Arctostaphylos “Sunset” has normal Manzanita flower clusters and pretty red berries in spring, if we ever get a real winter around these parts. I wonder what will happen berry-wise without rain. The birds will be hungry.

The story can now be told.

Benjamin tore his ACL and had surgery and now he’s all better, suffering through the home-made physical therapy routine but healed over. Thanks Dr. Vial!

Here was what he looked like a couple weeks ago.

I’m back from the Gift Show and I was able to get myself over to MOMA and see all the pretty arts and things. (The Diego Rivera murals are up through May. I recommend them.) And I found this cactus item at the MOMA gifty-artsy store. Now to be fair most of the crappy little gifts you can get at the MOMA store are all things I saw at the gift show too, plus a few that we even carry. But not this item. It’s new. And expensive. So no, we will also not be carrying this cactus item.

Gratuitous Calder mobile photo from MOMA:

This has been hanging out in a back stair of MOMA for years. Nice!

Matt in Portland, sends along these great photos from a friend of his in Manhattan Beach,

Up first we have a cute little hummingbird hovering around the Aloe arborescens blooms. Click to embiggen.

And now we have a closeup of the feeding little bugger. Notice how he rests on the stem.

Thanks, Matt!

A building in NY that’s not quite finished yet, but has interesting plantings. Some of which are already dying.

(more…)

Still travelling so here’s a lovely photo I took last week.

Leucadendron “Red Gem” I think. California is a good place for winter flowers.

Last day of the show and these were the only cactus candles I was able to find.

As usual, these are items we’re not going to be carrying. And we won’t be carrying the lizard either. You’ll have to find them elsewhere if these are the products you must have.

More new products we won’t be carrying.

Guess what it is because I don’t have a clue.

Fremontodendron “California Glory” bloom at an odd time of year. Lots of natives are blooming now but this is a heavy late-spring bloomer and this is a stray january bloom. Who woulda figured?

Products I find that we won’t be carrying.

Enjoy!

It’s a cactus pen.

Agave attenuata, aka the Foxtail Agave.

Crassula “Springtime”

Look, I said blogging would be slow this week so you may have to make do with pretty little pictures.

Enjoy!

I’ve got some posts lined up but blogging may be slow this week. Unless I find some exciting new material to share at the super secret location I’m going to. Stay tuned.

The newest addition to our terrarium plant collection at the nursery?

Scotch Moss! Sagina subulata “Aurea”

Irish Moss! Sagina subulata

Now you can finally make your own mossy terrariums in peace. just keep them a bit moist, don’t you know.

Gina sends along a link to the PlanetJune website with crocheted succulent bowls.

Nice!

Ferocactus glauca has mid-winter buds. I wonder why? Still, it will be months before we see blooms. I bet on June.

Action 4 News from the far southern Texas border region warns you to look for Meth in your Cactus shipments. Or if you don’t get truck shipments, then the grocery store would be a good place to check.

Two men are behind bars after authorities found more than 132 pounds of crystal meth hidden inside a prickly pear cactus shipment….

The truck was carrying 1,380 boxes of “nopales,” which are prickly pear cactus pads used for cooking…

Officials found 94 packages with 132.2 pounds of crystal meth hidden inside the produce.

A scintillating video of a sleeping whippet. Isn’t Jason cute? And look – he twitches! Enjoy!

San Pablo Ave.

I hope you like the “vignette blur” feature I’m now using to make the local Berkeley succulent photos look more interesting. I mean, this wheelbarrow is already very interesting, for sure, you know, and all, but maybe a little more interesting with the weird blur effect that makes it look like a toy?

The Cactus Garden Mobile Home Park in Tucson is quite lovely in these photos they have on their website. A nice deserty experience.

I wonder why they’re in the news recently?

Police say they seized more than 100 grams of cocaine on Wednesday night… at a residence in the Cactus Garden Trailer Court. The cocaine had a street value of more than $10,000…

Some $6,500 in cash was also seized

Oh.

Well, are there other pretty pictures? Yes, why yes there are.

[Late Update from the Editor: We apologize for any misunderstandings from this post. The cocaine bust was from an entirely different trailer park. In an entirely different state. This was not from Tucson, Arizona, but from Powell, MN. Sorry for the confusion.]

[2nd Late (Later?) Update from the Editor: Once AGAIN I must apologize. The cocaine story was not from Minnesota at all. It was from Wyoming. There, that should set the record straight. Are we OK now?]

Barry Goldwater was a Senator from Arizona, so it makes sense that if he was sketching he might sketch a cactus. And now that cactus sketch is in a gallery show in Los Angeles. Anyone from the gallery have a picture they want to share with us?

Art Made by U.S. Senators
Every once in a while, Margo Leavin Gallery pulls out one of the most precious artworks in its vaults, Jeffrey Vallance’s Drawings and Statements by U.S. Senators. In 1978, Vallance sent letters to senators in office, telling them he was working on a project about art and government, and asking if they’d send a drawing to support his project. The result? A quirky, almost intimate portrait of our elected leaders. One senator sent a snowman drawn by his daughter; two assigned their staff members to draw the Capitol (Jake Garn’s staffer was particularly precise); Dick Stone sent an autographed photo. Jesse Helms took the opportunity to espouse on regionalism, Barry Goldwater drew a delightfully abstract cactus (with a caption, in case Vallance didn’t recognize it), and Ted Kennedy explained that he used to paint but hadn’t had even “a moment to make a sketch” since taking office. 812 N. Robertson Blvd.; through March 10. (310) 273-0603, margoleavingallery.com.

Curtis Street

A galvanized tub along the sidewalk with Aeoniums. Very green.

Keith’s latest creation for a customer, to be delivered sometime. I wonder when?

Not that kind of cactus, but a cactus that was a christmas gift cactus.

Hello Peter,

Evidently my son and husband visited you a few weeks ago and picked up a little something for me for Christmas! Thanks for helping them make an excellent choice! I love my new, big, Cleistocactus, yay! For the two weeks prior to xmas, my daughter kept it in her apartment right by the couch. She watched it bloom and more buds get ready to bloom! You can see in the picture that Jack and Mike made a tall gift wrapped box for it. I had to wait for a while before I could “open” the box.

I will keep it just outside my kitchen window where I can see it every day…it’s near all my other cactus and succulents as well. Is there anything special I should know or do for it? It looks like it could use more red rock…oh, should I keep the supports tied around the four of them?

Perhaps I will visit you in the next month or two and redeem my cactus punch cards!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and Hap…

~Karen

A happy story indeed!